There are many devices that are operated by means of inserting money. A typical vending machine requires the patron to insert one or more coins in order to be able to receive a soft drink, a postage stamp, a subway token or some other item of value. Many gaming devices also require the insertion of coins in order to operate.
As automation increases, it has become necessary and desirable to provide vending and gaming machines with the ability to accept paper money. The insertion of paper money requires a currency acceptor/validator to verify that the paper money is legitimate as well as a currency storage compartment to hold the paper money until it is removed from the device.
In a conventional currency stacker, the currency storage compartment is an integral part of the device. In order to remove stored paper currency, the entire currency stacker must be separated from the remainder of the vending or gaming machine and replaced with another currency stacker while the filled currency stacker is taken to another location where the 14 paper currency inside the storage compartment is counted and otherwise processed. Alternatively, the paper currency is simply removed by hand from the storage compartment which minimizes the ability to maintain accounting control over the contents of the currency storage compartment.
In gaming related applications, currency handling systems have been proposed in many different forms. There are stand alone units which receive currency and dispense rolled coin. A system known as the "Lucky Changer.TM." has been distributed by the Ardac Incorporated. The "Lucky Changer.TM." accepts currency and dispenses loose coins from an internal hopper into a coin tray. The "Lucky Changer.TM." is approximately the same size as a gaming device and takes up space that could otherwise be used for gaming devices.
Ardac Incorporated also distributes a smaller change device known as "Mister Change.TM.". This device is sized to fit in between two adjacent gaming devices, includes a currency acceptor, a currency stacker with a cassette, a coin feeding device and an external coin tray.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a currency handling system that efficiently and reliably accepts and validates various denominations of currency, stacks the currency for later retrieval and dispenses loose coin for access by the user.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a currency handling system that includes a currency acceptor, a currency stacker that interacts with the currency acceptor to receive and stack currency, a currency cassette removably positioned in the currency stacker into which the currency is stacked and a coin feeding device integrated with the currency acceptor and the currency stacker into the currency handling system to dispense loose coins for access by the user into a coin tray.
It is an advantage of the present invention that currency can be accepted, validated, stacked for retrieval and loose coin dispensed to a user using an efficient and reliable apparatus.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a currency handling system that efficiently and reliably accepts and validates various denominations of currency, stacks the currency for later retrieval and interfaces with a gaming device to allocate credits to the credit meter of the gaming device to allow the user to operate the gaming device.
It is a further feature of the present invention to provide a currency handling system that includes a currency acceptor, a currency stacker that interacts with the currency acceptor to receive and stack currency, a currency cassette removably positioned in the currency stacker into which the currency is stacked and an electronic interface to the credit meter of the gaming device.
It is a further advantage of the present invention that currency can be accepted, validated, stacked for retrieval and credits allocated to the credit meter of the gaming device using an efficient and reliable apparatus.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a currency stacker that receives currency from a currency acceptor and stacks the currency in an efficient and compact manner into a separately removable currency cassette.
It is a further feature of the present invention to provide a currency stacker positioned adjacent the currency acceptor, the currency stacker including a positioning plate that stacks the received currency into a separate removable currency cassette mounted in the currency stacker.
It is a further advantage of the present invention that currency fed into the currency acceptor by a user is efficiently and compactly stacked into a separate, removable currency cassette.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a currency cassette that interfits into a currency stacker so that removal of paper currency can be effected without the necessity of removing the entire currency stacker from the vending or gaming equipment.
It is a further feature of the present invention to provide a currency cassette that is completely removable from the rest of the currency stacker so that an empty currency cassette can be substituted for a full currency cassette without replacing the entire currency stacker.
It is a further advantage of the present invention that when the currency cassette is full, the currency cassette can be removed from the currency stacker and replaced with an empty currency cassette without the necessity of removing the entire currency stacker from the currency handling system.